


Tell The Truth

by badly_knitted



Category: FAKE (Manga)
Genre: Community: slashthedrabble, Deception, Drama, Embarrassment, Established Relationship, Fluff, Honesty, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Lies, Light Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23877997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Dee is keeping something from his partner and Ryo wants to know what.
Relationships: Dee Laytner/Randy "Ryo" MacLean
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Tell The Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Prompt 563: Honesty at slashthedrabble.
> 
> This is the extended version of the ficlet I posted at the community.
> 
>  **Setting:** After the manga.

Honesty was of vital importance in any relationship; nothing could tear a supposedly happy couple apart faster than lies and deceit. In the course of their working lives Ryo and Dee had seen that scenario played out time and time again, and it seldom ended well for either party.

Dee was the most honest person Ryo had ever met; in fact at times he was too honest for his own good. He believed in speaking his mind, that was how he’d been raised, and it had gotten him into trouble with his superiors on more than a few occasions. 

Ryo could have told his partner it was never a good idea to pick fault with the Commissioner for any reason, and telling Rose his plan for tackling a spate of carjackings was stupid, even if did happen to be the truth, was tantamount to career suicide, especially since Dee had said so in front of the Mayor of New York. Naturally Dee had been unrepentant; he’d had a week’s pay docked but he stood by his opinion and his honesty had led to the plan being re-thought. The new plan that had resulted from some hurried brainstorming sessions, based on some suggestions Dee had made, was much better than the original and might actually stand a fair chance of working; what was a week’s pay compared to that? It was a small price to pay for a genuine chance at getting a pair of dangerous scumbags off the streets.

That was all well and good, and despite everything Ryo couldn’t honestly say he thought Dee had been wrong to speak out, although he could have been a bit more tactful about it; brutal honesty had its place, but sometimes a more delicate touch could be just as effective without leading to unwanted side-effects.

On the whole Ryo considered Dee’s innate honesty to be one of his best qualities, he liked that he could always count on Dee not to hide things from him, only right now something was a bit off about Dee and for once Ryo was finding it impossible to get a straight answer from his lover.

It had started a few days ago when Ryo had casually asked if Dee would be over for dinner that night. Dee had laughed and said probably; when did he ever miss a chance to enjoy Ryo’s home cooking? Only dinnertime had arrived, and Dee hadn’t, and when Ryo had called him to ask where he was he’d said something had come up at the orphanage and he couldn’t make it. Ryo had heard voices in the background, but it hadn’t sounded like Dee was with Mother Lane and when he’d asked his partner the next day Dee had shrugged it off, claiming it had just been the TV.

Then there was Dee’s behaviour around him at work. Normally Ryo found it damn near impossible getting Dee to keep his hands to himself; he was always grabbing, touching, groping, trying to coax Ryo into some secluded corner for ‘a bit of fun’. Now though, Dee seemed to be avoiding him like the plague. He was getting seriously worried so Ryo thought it worth mentioning, just in case Dee was annoyed with him for some reason. ‘Maybe I forgot an anniversary or something. Wouldn’t be the first time.’

“Dee, is everything okay? With us, I mean.”

“’Course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” But instead of smiling reassuringly across at Ryo, Dee kept his head down as he spoke, concentrating on the form he was filling in.

“I don’t know. It’s just, the past few days you haven’t pounced on me once.” Ryo blushed just mentioning it.

“You complain when I do, now you’re complainin’ ‘cause I’m not? Make up your mind, babe.”

But by mid-afternoon nothing had changed, Dee still wasn’t acting like himself, so Ryo asked instead, “Are you okay?”

Again Dee wouldn’t look at him. “I’m fine, just got a lot of paperwork to do.”

That definitely wasn’t like Dee and the warning bells already going off in Ryo’s head got louder than ever; something was wrong and Dee wasn’t telling him. Had he met someone else? Did he not want to make a scene by breaking up at work?

He was still none the wiser at the end of shift, and when he invited Dee to dinner, thinking they could talk things over then, for the first time in living memory Dee said he couldn’t; apparently he was busy, he had errands to run for Mother.

Perhaps it was a bit underhanded, made it seem like he didn’t trust the man he loved, but as soon as Ryo got home that night he called Mother, only to be told she hadn’t seen or spoken to Dee in a couple of weeks. Dee had flat out lied to him!

There was only one thing Ryo could do; he marched straight over to Dee’s place and demanded to know what was going on. “I thought we could be honest with each other!”

“We can,” Dee insisted, looking uncomfortable.

“It doesn’t seem that way to me. I know something’s going on with you and it’s got me worried; you’ve been hiding something from me for days! If it’s something I’ve done--”

“It’s not!”

“Then please, just tell me what’s wrong!”

Dee actually blushed. Tugging Ryo inside the apartment he hurriedly shut the door. “Fine. The other night I was in a rush gettin’ ready for dinner at yours; I was thinkin’ about what we might get up to later, once the brat was in bed. Decided not to bother with underwear so I’d be ready for action and when I went to fasten my jeans I…” Dee bit his lip and dropped his gaze. “I caught myself in my zipper, had to go to the ER. There was so much blood.”

Ryo’s eyes watered at the thought. “Ouch!” Dee was uncut and the zipper’s teeth would have… He shook his head, he couldn’t think about it; the very idea made him want to curl up in a ball!

“Yeah.” Dee grimaced. “Not fun, I needed three stitches. So anyway, now you know.”

“You could’ve just told me you’d hurt yourself.”

“I was embarrassed, okay? Thought you’d probably laugh. If I hadn’t been so busy thinkin’ about gettin’ you into bed after dinner…” Dee trailed off, wincing as he remembered. “Should’ve paid more attention to what I was doin’ instead of daydreamin’. As you can probably imagine, I’m still pretty sore so I haven’t exactly been in the mood since that night.”

“Understandable.” Ryo kissed him on the cheek. “Poor Dee. So when do the stitches come out?” 

“A few more days, and then the Doctor said I should wait another week for the bruising to clear up before I try havin’ sex again.” Dee gave Ryo a pained look. “Can we not talk about this anymore? Just the thought of you and sex…” He squirmed uncomfortably. “I know I can’t have sex right now, everything’s still too painful, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

“Okay then, I’ll leave you to relax and I won’t say another word about it.” Ryo turned to the door then glanced back over his shoulder. “Just let me know when you’ve recovered, okay?”

“Oh, trust me, babe; when I’m back in full workin’ order you’ll know about it!”

Now it was Ryo’s turn to blush, knowing exactly what Dee meant. “I don’t doubt it. Goodnight, Dee; I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

“Night, babe. Damn,” Dee sighed as he closed the door behind is lover. “Now I’m gonna have to take yet another cold shower.”

The End


End file.
